I thought it was more than just new endings. Don't they start you back a few areas? Aren't there new interactions/scenes throughout? Wouldn't you have to play through that part again to the full effect? I would think so. Watching videos on youtube just isn't the same.

Late to the party as ever I picked up the original Mass Effect on Steam yesterday. Having a blast but I'm hating the difficulty curve and the shooter mechanics. XP Bad enough the plot line enemies could 3-4 shot me but now I'm having to deal with pirates who can do the same in 2-3 and waltz right past the wall I'm taking cover behind while being able to take shotgun blows at point blank range. This ain't right. ~.~

The original ME I thought had the tightest actual plotline compared to ME2/3, but yeah the mechanics are very different. Basically every time you shoot at something, dice roll in the background to see if you hit, whereas 2 and 3 have more classic FPS mechanics.

As for the shooting mechanics, yeah, it felt awkward especially since I played ME1 AFTER 2 (and a lot of cover based shooters). It got better halfway through ME1 after I upgraded/customized my weapons a bit.

Kai Leng was a horribly written and stupidly cliched attempt at creating Mass Effect 3's Saren. He did nothing, and frequently failed at it. And his hatred for Shepard? The only explanation they could give is 'the writers needed him to hate Shepard, so uh, he does because of fuck you that's why. I really thought he was the worst part of the plot, original ending aside. Even that error-ridden book couldn't make him a less awful character.

Logged

Friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn't matter, but work is third.

Yeah, he wasn't better in the books. He's flat and uninteresting there, too. His entire function was to serve as a Saren-surrogate, and that was a well-intentioned but misguided goal.

Fact is, TIM and the Reapers were plenty villain enough. They were trying to create a 'personal' conflict like Shep had with Saren, but it fell flat. Saren was an awesome villain because he was sympathetic and also awesomely villainous-- and if you read the books, you realized that he was xenophobic and racist with regards to humanity but not EVIL, and his indoctrination just exacerbated that existing issue. Plus, his voice actor was off the fucking hook.

Kai Leng just consistently did stupid shit for no reason, and could barely beat a critically ill drell (admittedly, that drell was THANEOMGBADASS), but still. Seriously?

Logged

Friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn't matter, but work is third.

I don't know if kai leng was supposed to be a Saren surrogate. The Illusive Man fit that role much better.

Saren and TIM both:

Believed they were in control when someone else was controlling them.

Underwent reaper tech infusion of their own will.

Wanted Shepard to come over to their side: Saren, "Don't you see, my way is the only way any of us will survive." TIM, "I wish you could see it like I do, Shepard. It's so ... perfect."

Both can be convinced by Shepard's powerful will that what they're doing is wrong and misguided, proving that they were not evil, simply lost their way somewhere in the execution of their good intentions.

Kai Leng was not a leader. He was a follower. He was supposed to represent the triumph of Shepard and Anderson's bond against the loyalty to a misguided cause. The problem is he was introduced in the fucking books and didn't get any characterization.

Kai Leng felt to me like a goofy jrpg villain knock-off. I actually didn't like Saren very much, eithe.r I found him to be a boring villain. At least until the end when we find out he wasn't the true villain after all. Then I kind of just felt bad for him.

Is there any point in my getting 4000+ military readiness for the new endings or do all I get is one little image at the end again?

I am pretty much trying to do everything but it is almost effing impossible to get 4000 if you don't play online since your score is cut to 50%.

According to the ME wikia (contains spoilers), the EMS needed for the "special" ending in the Extended Cut was lowered to 3100 EMS. So if you've played a more or less Paragon Shepard, you'll easily pass it. Remember that the values are cut in half, so if you have 7000, it'll be in fact 3500.